Holding On
by untouchableandunknown
Summary: Four girls who lived by a single oath, to stand by one another and to never leave each others side. When Latoya's dad dies, Haley's parents get a divorce, Ashley and Natalia are both in fairy tales ... that don't have happy endings...


This is only _inspired_ by Sarah Dessen books, it is not a continuation or remake of any of her books.

It is mostly inspired by _Just Listen_ and _The Truth About Forever_.

This is my first fanfiction and I would **love** feedback, criticism is OK too!

I will write my personal notes on each chapter here, so please come back to this chapter and see what I've said!

And last, but not least, **_thankyou_** for reading this.

I may only be 13, but I have put my heart and soul into writing this fanfic!

_**THANKYOU SO MUCH FOR READING!!!**_

**ps-the lines also split up each character because it wont allow me to do two [enters **

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**My Notes:**

Chapter One:

I don't have a single main character, and I don't have a full plan, I have decided to just form things as I go-any ideas would be loved!

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_Four Girls and One Single Oath_

_Latoya:_

Christine Beaumont, my mother, has gone into working overdrive. She's a lawyer, and after my fathers _death_ she's been working 24/7 with barely a wink of sleep. My sister, Raquel, has gone into turmoil; she's been sneaking out every night and coming home in the early morning hours, usually drunk.

My twin brother, Jack, has just gone quiet. He's cooped himself up and removed himself from the world. My whole family's left me to take charge, not thinking that perhaps _I_ was upset, or maybe _I_ was finding it hard to cope.

I looked into the mirror, a set of vibrant aqua eyes were staring back at me, eyeliner and mascara around them in an almost perfect coat. My fringe fell into my face, mangling my view. I pulled it back and looked at my messy waves of dark brown hair on my head; I grabbed the hair brush off the table and pulled it through my hair, walking out of the room as I did so.

'Jack' I called softly as I knocked on Jack's door, I eased the door open, I was so used to seeing posters of football players and girls in bikini's, but now his walls were bare, his football gear had been stashed away under his bed, his posters thrown out.

'Knock before you enter, Knock' Jack hissed as he emerged from his bathroom, he had changed a lot within the last 6months, 'I did, you obviously didn't hear me' I replied softly, I hadn't raised my voice at him for a while, nobody had.

'What do you want?' he said in an agitated tone as he turned his back on me and began rummaging through his cupboard.

'I was just making sure you were awake,' I muttered as I backed out of the room, looking down at the floor. He had once been a popular guy that every girl wanted to be with, he had been my twin, the person I could share thoughts with, the person whom I could tell all my deepest secrets-but things were different now, and I saw no point in hanging onto the past.

I walked to the next door down and nodded lightly, I eased the door open and stepped in, only to see a lump of Raquel covered in blankets, I sighed and walked over to the curtains, opening each one and letting rays of light enter the dull room.

'Raquel, are you ok?' asked as I kneeled beside her, my hand on hers.

'Go away twerp' she groaned as she rolled over.

I sighed and walked out; sometimes I didn't know why I even bothered with them. I walked down the stairs and into our kitchen, where I found my mother sitting with her lap top in front of her, a coffee cup in her hand, she was probably on her sixth one by now.

'Morning mum' I said as I walked into the kitchen helping myself to a slice of toast, she barley acknowledged me. She drew her eyes away from the screen for a millisecond and looked in my direction. She looked so much more stressed, so aged, I'd never seen her look so tired before, but then again, I'd barely seen her at all. I was still looking at her as Jack slumped down the stairs, he looked so-lonely. And even though he had slimed down a little, and his dazzling smile had disappeared, he was still good looking, at least according to Ashley, my best friend.

She was standing outside my house, as always, waiting to walk to school with me. Her long dark brown hair was tied in a high pony tail, her bag was slung over her slender figure. I was slightly skinnier than her, and little more, how should I say… busty.

I smiled as I approached her, the piece of toast in my mouth, my silver hoped earrings glimmering the slightest bit in the sun.

'Hey Latoya' she said as she wrapped her arms around me and gave me a tight squeeze, 'you ok?' she asked, just as she did every day, 'perfect' I replied, just as I normally did. We began to walk, Jack following mutely behind us. Our first two classes went normally, by normal, I mean listening to Professor Portman's lecture on electricity, and Mrs. Smith handing out a pop quiz.

At morning tea I met up with Ashley, Natalia and Haley, we sat at our usual spot: under the oak tree on the side of the field, not to mention that it came with a perfect view, I mean, we were looking directly at the field where people tend to play sports.

Us four girls made a perfect team. Haley was the brains, she was great with anything and everything that needed logic, but she was hopeless with boys. Ashley was our fearless athlete, never scared, unless it came to guys, that was a different story, she always went speechless around them and broke into a furious sweat, her face would go red and she'd make some grunting noises. Natalia was the guy magnet, she had a perfect figure, perfect face and perfect smile, and even though she was scared of creepy crawlies, she was amazingly calm around guys, if anything she was calmer around guys than most people. Me, well I was their to keep them together, I used to be the girl who cracked jokes, but I went a bit more quiet after the incident. The girls were great after my dads death, they were always there for me, even though I didn't show my pain, I didn't cry, they could tell I was down, and stuck by me at all times, for moral support, and they still hadn't left me, its like they were waiting, it was as if they knew one day I would crack.

Natalia stretched out and looked up at the branches of the oak tree, her light brown, almost blonde hair was blowing gently in the wind. Soon all four of us were on our backs gazing up at the branches of the tree. The single tree was even important to me, it had been there as long as I could remember, we had engraved our names on it, and our oath, that we would stand by each other, no matter what. But that was going to be tested this year.

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_Natalia:_

It felt so right to just sit there with Haley, Latoya and Ashley beside me. Our oath was carved into the trunk of the tree, near the top, we had each signed it, we swore we would stand by each other, that we wouldn't lie to one another. It sounded so childish, but I should point out, it was made back in grade 6. I felt like I could sit there forever, staring up at the tree, feeling the cool wind on my face.

_**BING**_

'that' I muttered 'would be the bell'

I stood up and gave Ashley and Haley brief hugs before walking off with Latoya to our Art class. Ashley would have Biology now, and Haley had Business. I already had most of their schedule memorized, the only one I couldn't remember was my own.

'Mind me a seat, just gotta grab my gear' I said to Latoya as I turned to my right and stopped at my locker, 'hey babe,' Josh, my long gone ex, said as he came up behind me a groped my ass.

I whipped around and slapped him-hard-on the face, 'touch me again and I'll hit somewhere a lot more painful' I hissed as I walked off, my art book and paint gear in hand, people in the corridor snickered as they looked at Josh who was now red faced, was that a bit of a tear forming in his eyes?

'Good one' I heard a voice say from my left, I turned to see Ryan standing there snickering as Josh tried to walk away, making it look like nothing happened.

'He deserved it' I said as I bit my lip, 'anyway' I continued 'I have you next lesson for English, rite?' I asked even though I was 99 sure it was English after Art.

'Yeah,' he said as he turned and smiled at me, 'see you then'.

Now don't get the wrong idea about me and Ryan, I do not, I repeat do _not_ like him. He was my best friend since Pre School, he disappeared for a few years, and turned back up in seventh grade, plus he wasn't really my type, not that I had a type.

'Nice to see your joining us Miss Sargent' my hippie art teacher said as I entered the room, I hadn't even realized that I walked to class. Oh well.

I took a seat next to Latoya and zoned out while my art teacher droned on about expressive colours. She had been teaching me for over a year, and I still hadn't managed to catch her name.

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_Haley:_

I remember the day that Mr. Beaumont died. Latoya didn't cry, and sometimes I just wish that she did. She could have got some of the pain out of her system, but she kept it in her. Now, she's just a bomb; ticking and ticking-one day she'll explode.

I want to be there for her when it happens, but I'm having some problems of my own…

I haven't told the girls, well, it's probably because I can hardly believe it myself, but, my parents are getting a divorce. There wasn't any visible warning, sure, they sometimes bickered, but it was never anything serious. They informed me yesterday, hence the fact that I haven't actually opened my mouth to speak for all of today.

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_Ashley: _

I silently watched little miss tart, commonly known as Shania, or as her evil clones would say 'Niya', as she air kissed her two clones (Bec and Lisa) before walking into class, her head held high her highly revealing clothes clinging tightly to her body. It was fourth period, English, which I had with Natalia.

Shania paused beside Natalia's desk and glared at her before walking towards her own desk, which just happened to be directly behind us.  
Shania was the so called 'popular girl', the girl who apparently 'ruled the school' but unlike most 'popular girls' she didn't have all the guys drooling over her, no, no, all the guys were drooling over Naty-_all_ of them!

Mr. Plant (funny name, I know) began class as he usually did, with yet another pop quiz. I looked down at the sheet he handed out-it was on some book that I was supposed to have read.  
I tried to think back to yesterday's class, but all I could remember was…  
Well, truthfully, I didn't remember a single thing. I let out a sigh and glanced at Naty, she looked just as confused as I was.

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_Haley: _

**_BING _**

I lifted my head off the desk, from which I was just sleeping on, I glanced drowsily around the classroom, Ryan shook his head at me, a smirk lying on his face, he stood up and walked over to me 'I thought you were one of the good kids. The ones who _didn't_ sleep during class' He walked straight out the door before I could reply, thank god he did, I didn't have any idea of what to say.

I grabbed my books and pencil case and walked out of class. The halls were filled with people, as usual.

_POKE_

I turned to around to see Ashley standing there 'did you hear a single thing that I said?!' she was clearly annoyed.

'Do I -' suddenly Latoya popped up, a huge smile plastered to her face.

'Let's go eat, I'm _starving_!' the rest of the day just drifted by.

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_Natalia: _

Let me say one thing, making out in the back of a car isn't as great as people make it out to be, _especially_ when you accidentally fall off the seat and bang your head on the ground.

'Sorry' Brian said as he pulled me up off the car floor, we were both grinning, 'you ok?'

'Yeah' I said with a little laugh.

'Maybe we should head in' he suggested as he pulled his top back on. My house was like his second home, he came over nearly every weekend, seeing as my parents were always away on business trips.


End file.
